---
title: "Proverbs 20 – Catholic Bible (CPDV) & Latin Vulgate · Bless"
url: https://blessbible.app/bible/proverbs/20/
description: "Proverbs 20, all 30 verses, in the Catholic Public Domain Version with the Latin Vulgate."
---

# Proverbs 20

Proverbs 20 is chapter 20 of 31 in the Book of Proverbs. Here are all 30 verses in the Catholic Public Domain Version, with the Latin of the Clementine Vulgate beside them.

## Proverbs 20 (Catholic Public Domain Version)

1. It is a luxurious thing, wine, and inebriation is tumultuous. Anyone who is delighted by this will not be wise.
2. Just like the roaring of a lion, so also is the dread of a king. Whoever provokes him sins in his own soul.
3. Honor is for the man who separates himself from contentions. But all the foolish meddle in altercations.
4. Because of the cold, the lazy one was not willing to plough. Therefore, in the summer, he will beg, and it will not be given to him.
5. Counsel in the heart of a man is like deep waters. But a wise man will draw it out.
6. Many men are called merciful. But who will find a faithful man?
7. The just who walks in his simplicity shall leave behind him blessed sons.
8. The king who sits on the throne of judgment scatters all evil with his gaze.
9. Who is able to say: “My heart is clean. I am pure from sin?”
10. Diverse weights, diverse measures: both are abominable with God.
11. A child may be understood by his interests: whether his works may be clean and upright.
12. The hearing ear and the seeing eye: the Lord has made them both.
13. Do not love sleep, lest deprivation oppress you. Open your eyes and be satisfied with bread.
14. “It is bad, it is bad,” says every buyer; and when he has withdrawn, then he will boast.
15. There is gold, and there are a multitude of jewels. But lips of knowledge are a precious vessel.
16. Take away the vestments of him who stands up to vouch for a stranger, and take a pledge from him instead of from outsiders.
17. The bread of lies is sweet to a man. But afterwards, his mouth will be filled with pebbles.
18. Plans are strengthened by counsels. And wars are to be handled by governments.
19. Do not become involved with him who reveals mysteries, and who walks deceitfully, and who enlarges his lips.
20. Whoever curses his father and mother, his lamp will be extinguished in the midst of darkness.
21. When an inheritance is obtained hastily in the beginning, in the end it will be without a blessing.
22. Do not say, “I will repay evil.” Wait for the Lord, and he will free you.
23. Diverse weights are an abomination with the Lord. A deceitful balance is not good.
24. The steps of men are directed by the Lord. But who is the man able to understand his own way?
25. It is ruin for a man to devour what is holy, or, after making vows, to retract them.
26. A wise king scatters the impious and bends an archway over them.
27. The spirit of a man is a lamp to the Lord, which investigates all the secrets of the inner self.
28. Mercy and truth guard the king, and his throne is strengthened by clemency.
29. The joy of youths is their strength. And the dignity of old men is their grey hairs.
30. The bruise of a wound, as well as scourges, shall wipe away evils in the more secret places of the inner self.

## Proverbs 20 in Latin (Clementine Vulgate, 1592)

1. Luxuriosa res vinum, et tumultuosa ebrietas: quicumque his delectatur non erit sapiens.
2. Sicut rugitus leonis, ita et terror regis: qui provocat eum peccat in animam suam.
3. Honor est homini qui separat se a contentionibus; omnes autem stulti miscentur contumeliis.
4. Propter frigus piger arare noluit; mendicabit ergo æstate, et non dabitur illi.
5. Sicut aqua profunda, sic consilium in corde viri; sed homo sapiens exhauriet illud.
6. Multi homines misericordes vocantur; virum autem fidelem quis inveniet?
7. Justus qui ambulat in simplicitate sua beatos post se filios derelinquet.
8. Rex qui sedet in solio judicii dissipat omne malum intuitu suo.
9. Quis potest dicere: Mundum est cor meum; purus sum a peccato?
10. Pondus et pondus, mensura et mensura: utrumque abominabile est apud Deum.
11. Ex studiis suis intelligitur puer, si munda et recta sint opera ejus.
12. Aurem audientem, et oculum videntem: Dominus fecit utrumque.
13. Noli diligere somnum, ne te egestas opprimat: aperi oculos tuos, et saturare panibus.
14. Malum est, malum est, dicit omnis emptor; et cum recesserit, tunc gloriabitur.
15. Est aurum et multitudo gemmarum, et vas pretiosum labia scientiæ.
16. Tolle vestimentum ejus qui fidejussor extitit alieni, et pro extraneis aufer pignus ab eo.
17. Suavis est homini panis mendacii, et postea implebitur os ejus calculo.
18. Cogitationes consiliis roborantur, et gubernaculis tractanda sunt bella.
19. Ei qui revelat mysteria, et ambulat fraudulenter, et dilatat labia sua, ne commiscearis.
20. Qui maledicit patri suo et matri, extinguetur lucerna ejus in mediis tenebris:
21. hæreditas ad quam festinatur in principio, in novissimo benedictione carebit.
22. Ne dicas: Reddam malum: exspecta Dominum, et liberabit te.
23. Abominatio est apud Dominum pondus et pondus; statera dolosa non est bona.
24. A Domino diriguntur gressus viri: quis autem hominum intelligere potest viam suam?
25. Ruina est homini devorare sanctos, et post vota retractare.
26. Dissipat impios rex sapiens, et incurvat super eos fornicem.
27. Lucerna Domini spiraculum hominis, quæ investigat omnia secreta ventris.
28. Misericordia et veritas custodiunt regem, et roboratur clementia thronus ejus.
29. Exsultatio juvenum fortitudo eorum, et dignitas senum canities.
30. Livor vulneris absterget mala, et plagæ in secretioribus ventris.

Source: Catholic Public Domain Version (Ronald L. Conte Jr., 2009), public domain; Latin: Clementine Vulgate (1592).